Employment Lawyer

Slaughter and May; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Slaughter and May is recruiting an Employment Lawyer to join its HR team in London, with responsibility for leading the firm’s employee relations strategy and cross-border oversight in Brussels. The role advises partners and senior leaders, ensures compliant policy, and handles high‑profile matters with confidentiality and nuance.

The ideal candidate is a England & Wales solicitor with 5+ years PQE, strong employment law expertise, and experience in cross-border employee relations.

Qualifications

• Qualified England & Wales solicitor with at least 5 years PQE in employment law.
• Experience handling complex, high-risk ER matters.
• Cross-border ER experience (Belgium) is desirable.
• Evidence of influencing senior stakeholders and partners.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the firm's employee relations strategy in London and Brussels.
• Oversee ER case management including grievances, disciplinaries, and conduct issues.
• Advise partners and managers on employment law policy and process.
• Collaborate with internal and external counsel on specialist advice.
• Develop policies aligned with regulatory requirements and best practice.

Skills

Senior stakeholder influence

Employment law expertise

Analytical & data-driven

Strong communication

Education

England & Wales solicitor, 5+ PQE

Job description

We are recruiting for an Employment Lawyer to join our highly effective and valued HR team, reporting to the Chief People Officer.

This is a senior role responsible for leading the firm’s employee relations strategy and operational delivery across London and Brussels. The role ensures that all employee relations matters are managed with professionalism, consistency, legal compliance, and commercial pragmatism, while acting as a trusted adviser to partners and senior leaders.

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role are set out below and there may be others which are not listed. You may be required on occasion to work outside our normal working hours of 9:30am to 5:30pm.

Strategic Leadership

• Define and lead the firm’s employee relations strategy, aligned to the wider People strategy and business objectives.
• Collaborate with our HR Managers to ensure that we deliver a high-performing employee relations function, balancing legal risk, fairness, and commercial outcomes.
• Provide regular insight and reporting on ER trends, risks, and opportunities, using data to inform decision-making.
• Promote early resolution, mediation, and pragmatic approaches to minimise formal escalation.

Employee Relations Oversight and Case Management

• In collaboration with our HR Managers oversee all employee relations cases across the firm to ensure best practice and consistency, including:
  1. grievances, disciplinaries, and conduct issues
  2. performance management
  3. long‑term sickness and absence management
  4. mental health‑related cases
  5. dismissals, settlement agreements, and contractual changes
• Personally lead or advise on complex, sensitive, or high‑profile matters, including those involving partners or senior stakeholders.
• Ensure investigations are conducted with procedural rigor, fairness, confidentiality, and clear documentation.
• Support the HR Managers with restructuring, redundancy, and organisational change programmes from an employee relations perspective.

Advisory and Stakeholder Support

• Act as a trusted adviser to partners, business services leaders, and people managers on all employee relations matters.
• Equip and support HR Managers to provide high-quality, consistent guidance on employment law, policy, and process.
• Work closely with internal and external legal counsel where specialist advice is required.

Policy, Governance and Compliance

• Lead the development, review, and governance of people policies and procedures to ensure alignment with employment law, regulatory requirements, and best practice.
• Ensure HR related policies are regularly reviewed in line with audit and compliance requirements.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments across the UK and Belgium, adapting policies and practices accordingly.
• Work with Legal, Risk and Compliance to ensure alignment of HR related policies, controls and procedures with regulatory frameworks, including SRA requirements.

Data, Insight and Risk Management

• Collate and maintain employee relations data to identify trends, risks, and systemic issues.
• Provide insight-driven recommendations to senior leadership to address emerging challenges.
• Ensure robust case management systems and accurate record-keeping.

Cross-Border Employee Relations (Brussels)

• Provide oversight of employee relations matters in the Brussels office, ensuring compliance with Belgian employment law and local requirements.
• Coordinate with local HR and external advisers to ensure consistent standards and effective handling of cross-border matters.

Capability Building and Culture

• Enhance employee relations capability across the firm through coaching, knowledge sharing, and practical guidance.
• Design and deliver training for partners and managers on employee relations topics, including performance management and handling complex issues.
• Develop tools and frameworks to support consistent handling of employee relations matters.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Wellbeing

• Ensure employee relations practices support the firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to identify and address systemic issues and promote an inclusive, respectful culture.
• Support initiatives that enhance psychological safety and employee wellbeing.

Candidate profile

Candidates for this position must have:

• Qualified England & Wales solicitor with at least 5 years PQE, with strong expertise in employment law and its practical application in a regulated professional services or partnership environment.
• Experience handling complex, high-risk, and sensitive ER matters.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, including partners.
• Experience of cross-border employee relations (Belgium experience desirable).
• Track record in developing ER strategy, policy, and governance frameworks.

Key Attributes

• Excellent judgement, discretion, and integrity.
• Commercially and legally astute, with a pragmatic approach.
• Credible and confident communicator at senior level with strong written communication skills.
• Resilient and able to manage competing priorities.
• Collaborative and solutions-focused.
• Strong commitment to fairness, equity, and inclusion.

We are a Disability Confident Committed employer and will offer an interview to applicants with a disability or long-term condition who best meet the minimum or essential criteria for our Business Services roles. If you would like to apply through the Disability Confident 'Offer An Interview' commitment, please apply via our online application form and not via LinkedIn.

You are disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long‑term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. For more information about the Disability Confident scheme, please see the government website here.

We welcome applications irrespective of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, belief or marital status